BEFORE BONNIE MET CLYDE

The infamous outlaw once had her sights set on Hollywood

- Brigid Auchettl

With a pistol resting on her hip and a cigar dangling from her lips, Bonnie Parker loved posing for the camera.

The tiny Texan, whose name will be forever linked to her partner in crime Clyde Barrow, had dreamed from a young age of becoming famous but could never have imagined how she would become known.

So determined was she to become a star, she posed for glamour shots at 16 and sent them offto Hollywood, hoping she’d be discovered.

But it was not to be. Instead, she found a path out of poverty and obscurity by following two dangerous men.

Born in 1910 in Rowena, Texas, Bonnie was a bright, pretty child who thrived on attention, and loved to sing, dance and act. She boasted to friends that they would one day see her name in lights.

ABUSIVE MARRIAGE

When her photos failed to catch the eye of Hollywood hotshots, she tied the knot with her high-school sweetheart Roy Thornton in September 1926.

It was no fairytale marriage. Abusive, absent and always in trouble with the law, Roy was jailed in January 1929 and Bonnie never saw him again.

Interested in poetry, literature and performing on stage, there were no signs Bonnie would follow a criminal lifestyle – until she crossed paths with Clyde.